Behind the scenes, we’re told, Trump has been pressing his staff to design a postwar Middle East where Iran cannot dominate. A story attributed to the U.S. digital news outlet Axios and published in The Times of India, claims that this design will include a Trump-envisioned Gaza and an “Abrahamic” accord between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Much of the world and all of the Middle East will want to know where Palestine and the Palestinian people would fit into a Trump-imagined Gaza or a Saudi-Israeli accord. Constructing a global or Middle Eastern map without Palestine is not a game the bulk of the world will be interested in playing.
Leaving Palestine to one side, does anyone know when the ongoing U.S.-Iran war will end? Right now the skies over Iran and its neighbors may be free of long-range missiles and bunker-buster bombers, but vital Iranian installations and ships aligned to both sides have been targeted in recent days. It appears that one U.S. strike in Kuhestak, a small town in southern Iran, managed to hit a wedding party, killing four and injuring at least 68.
It is clear that a settlement would relieve all sides, but is there enough momentum in efforts to get there? The whole world is paying a price for Iran’s resolve to leverage the Strait of Hormuz and for the U.S.-imposed blockade of Iranian ports.
Evidently the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, have talked over the phone. According to Al Jazeera, which quotes Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, the two ministers have “comprehensively” discussed the latest developments in ongoing negotiations with the U.S.
Mediators Again at Work?
Moreover, the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, publishes a report from Saudi Arabia, citing the Saudi foreign ministry, that its head, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, has had a conversation with Pakistan’s Deputy Premier, Ishaq Dar, on “efforts to contain the crisis” in the Middle East. The two apparently “discussed efforts to advance peaceful solutions through dialogue and negotiation in a manner that contributes to de-escalating tensions in the region.”
This suggests that mediators are again active.
The western world took scant notice of a recent summit held in Bishkek, capital of Central Asia’s Kyrgyz Republic, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Premier Narendra Modi and Pakistani Premier Shehbaz Sharif were among the attendees.
Interestingly enough, four days after the summit, Hassan Qashqavi, a security spokesperson for Iran, made the following public complaint, as reported by Al Jazeera:
“Four days ago, the president of our country said at the Bishkek summit that we are ready to return to negotiations, but American officials do not pay attention to these issues and instead intensify the blockade.”
Pakistan’s Dawn carried the Al Jazeera story where Qashqavi also said that Tehran is in an “existential war” and confirmed that Iran has targeted U.S. warships with ballistic missiles. “This blockade should never have existed,” Qashqavi added.
Left to Itself
It would appear that neither Putin nor Xi has given Iran an assurance of substantial military support in its confrontation with the U.S. Left to fight on its own, Iran will be comparing the costs-benefits of fighting with the costs-benefits of negotiating.
The U.S. strategy seems to be to force Iran to come to terms. Says Admiral Brad Cooper, who heads the U.S. Central Command: “Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours.”
CENTCOM forces continue to enforce the maritime blockade against Iran. By Sept. 6, U.S. forces had redirected, we are told, 92 commercial vessels, disabled three, and boarded two to ensure strict compliance. The blockade is clearly hurting Iran’s economy and has been a clever response to Iran’s use of the Strait as a weapon.
When Iranian officials say they are ready for negotiations, they usually add that they are ready also to continue to fight. Dawn quotes Iranian Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari describing modern warfare as “a battle of willpower and endurance” and recognizing “that the country stands against an enemy possessing the world’s full range of equipment and technology.”
Modi Still on Backfoot
In India, Modi and his BJP remain on the backfoot while Rahul Gandhi, his Congress Party, and the Cockroaches continue their attacks. The opposition is focusing on five questions: the education of young Indians, frustrations felt by the “middle castes” (formally termed “OBCs,” for Other Backward Classes), assaults on India’s Muslims and Christians, large-scale thefts in Ayodhya’s Ram Temple, and the status of the Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu text prescribing rules that grate on present-day sensibilities.
At a college centenary in Delhi, Modi again tried on Sept. 6 to connect with the country’s Gen Z, but did not appear to succeed. His claim at the event that he has forced “intellectual anarchists” to come out into the open invited sharp attacks.
The CJP co-convenor, Saurav Das, said in an X post that it was “shameful” for a Prime Minister to brand a questioning new generation with a political label. In Das’s view, Modi “had an opportunity to interact directly with the youngsters, talk to them about the crumbling infrastructure in schools and colleges, teachers’ grievances, and the uncertainty surrounding jobs and education.
“He could have also spoken about nearly a hundred thousand schools shutting down in a decade. He could even have answered for his own government slashing the education budget by half in the last 12 years.” Instead, he used the occasion to “demonize an entire generation” for doing “what young people in a democracy are expected to do,” which is to question those in power.
The Congress Party’s president, Mallikarjun Kharge, whose recent talk at Haldwani in the northern state of Uttarakhand had been followed by a call by conservative Hindus for “purifying” the ground where he had spoken, presumably because by caste Kharge is a Dalit, said, “Narendra Modi-ji, yesterday you visited Shri Ram College of Commerce. It was an opportunity for dialogue on the country’s youth, education and their future. Alas,... the speech turned into yet another political campaign.”
On the day of Modi’s talk, one of many imperfect buildings in the capital where students from distant places rent (not cheaply) a bed while taking Delhi University classes, crumbled, causing the death of at least seven persons and inviting sharp public criticism of the failure of Delhi’s city government, also BJP-run, to enforce its construction laws.
Pre-dawn Demolition of Mosque
Has Modi been helped by the pre-dawn demolition on Sept. 5 of a mosque evidently built in 1911 in the western UP town of Saharanpur? Lower courts had upheld the claim of UP’s BJP government that the mosque was “an illegal encroachment and unauthorized construction on government land,” but Muslim organizations in Saharanpur have charged that they were given no time to move either the Allahabad High Court or the Supreme Court against lower-level verdicts. Muslim activists about to move the higher courts were apparently prevented physically from leaving their homes.
An overt or covert call for Hindus of all castes to unite against India’s “disloyal” Muslim minority has long been viewed as a winning political strategy for the BJP, and may be the one which a Modi regime that has lost prestige will again adopt.
Will the India of 2026 bless such a strategy? The Cockroaches don’t seem to think so. And the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi seems clear that the age of elite-caste domination has gone. While Modi and the BJP have reluctantly conceded Rahul’s persistent demand for a caste census, “OBC” will not be a caste category an Indian can claim.
Understanding the OBCs
Why is this of consequence? Finalized in 1949, India’s constitution speaks of religious minorities, of castes deemed untouchable in the past (termed the “Scheduled Castes” and usually spoken of as Dalits), of tribals (“Scheduled Tribes” or Adivasis), and of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). It seems, however, that in the ongoing census, which began on April 1 this year, when citizens are asked to pick a name for their “caste,” they’re not being offered the “OBC” option.
The world is better aware of India’s “high” castes and of India’s former “untouchables,” but the bulk of India’s Hindus belong to the less-known “OBCs.” In recent years, OBCs have largely preferred Modi and the BJP to the Congress. Is the regime afraid that Rahul Gandhi may succeed in reversing this pattern?
OBC and Dalit leaders openly challenge the Manusmriti, which despite its aura speaks offensively of women, Dalits and those outside the high castes. Modi and the BJP may be hoping that most Hindus will frown upon Manusmriti critics, but will this be true for the India of 2026 and 2027?
For days a right-wing influencer named Swatantra Bhardwaj boasted before news channels and YouTubers of powerful backers and displayed photographs of himself with prominent BJP leaders even as a Dalit girl, Nishu Azad, who had been part of July’s Jantar Mantar student protests, asserted that during those protests Bhardwaj had brutally hit her father Sanjay Azad on the head.
According to the portal The Wire, Bhardwaj had claimed that he “avoided jail despite inflicting serious injuries on his victim Sanjay Azad because he enjoys support from the Establishment.”
A CJP visit on Sept. 4 to a police station in New Delhi led later to Bhardwaj’s arrest and to charges being filed against him. Nishu, the teen protester, welcomed the police action but expressed fears over ongoing abuses and threats from Bhardwaj supporters. Meanwhile, a counter-complaint was filed with the Delhi Police against the minor protester and her father, accusing them of “hurting religious sentiments” through online posts.
Who Were Those Men?
The Bhardwaj story is a reminder of the scores (or more) of men without uniform whom the world saw on July 20, swinging their lathis at unarmed Jantar Mantar protesters. Who were those men? To which security agency of the government did they belong? Why did they have no uniform or badge? The people of India have the right to know. Modi and Shah have yet to provide answers.
